in-crop-weather State Indiana Crop Weather Week Ending Date April 11, 2004 Issue IN-CW1504 Agricultural Summary Soils became progressively drier during the week allowing many farmers to begin spring tillage and planting operations, according to the Indiana Agricultural Statistics Service. Scattered fields of corn were planted, but most farmers are still waiting for warmer soil conditions. The best progress for planting activities occurred in the southern region of the state, especially in the southwest. Precipitation was minimal in most areas of the state. Reporters indicate dry subsoil conditions in some areas for this time of the year. Warm sunny weather along with wind helped soils dry out during the week. Field Crops Report There were 5.5 days suitable for fieldwork. Three percent of the intended corn acreage is planted compared with 1 percent for both last year and the 5-year average. Seeding of oats was in full swing during the week. A few fields of soybeans have been planted. Spreading of fertilizer, applying anhydrous ammonia and spraying of chemicals took place on many fields. Final preparations of planting equipment continued. Growth and development of forage crops and pastures improved during the week. Twenty-six percent of the winter wheat acreage is jointed compared with 20 percent last year and 25 percent for the 5-year average. Winter wheat condition is rated 83 percent good to excellent compared with 76 percent last year at this time. Wheat continues to look good, but thinner spots are becoming apparent in a few fields. Harmony was being sprayed on some wheat fields. Major activities during the week were tillage of soils, moving grain to market, applying fertilizer and spreading lime, spraying chemicals, preparing equipment, ditch and fence row cleaning, seeding legumes, hauling manure and taking care of livestock. Livestock, Pasture and Range Report Pasture condition is rated 8 percent excellent, 58 percent good, 29 percent fair, 4 percent poor and 1 percent very poor. Livestock are in mostly good condition. Hay supplies are rated 2 percent very short, 10 percent short, 80 percent adequate and 8 percent surplus. Lambing and spring calving continued with most reporting very little difficulty. Crop Progress Table ----------------------------------------------------- : This : Last : Last : 5-Year Crop : Week : Week : Year : Avg ----------------------------------------------------- Percent Corn Planted 3 NA 1 1 Winter Wheat Jointed 26 12 20 25 Crop Condition Table ------------------------------------------------------------- : Very : : : : Excel- Crop : Poor : Poor : Fair : Good : lent ------------------------------------------------------------- Percent Pasture 1 4 29 58 8 Winter Wheat 2004 0 2 15 63 20 Winter Wheat 2003 0 3 21 60 16 Soil Moisture & Days Suitable For Fieldwork Table ------------------------------------------------------- : This : Last : Last : : Week : Week : Year : ------------------------------------------------------- Percent Topsoil Very Short 1 0 2 Short 8 1 6 Adequate 77 54 73 Surplus 14 45 19 Subsoil Very Short 2 2 7 Short 7 3 17 Adequate 77 68 66 Surplus 14 27 10 Days Suitable 5.5 1.5 2.9 Contact information --Greg Preston, State Statistician --Bud Bever, Agricultural Statistician E-Mail Address: nass-in@nass.usda.gov http://www.nass.usda.gov/in/index.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Agricultural Comments And News PUZZLE OF CORN'S ORIGINS COMING TOGETHER * Understanding the genetic origins of corn -- now the world's single largest food crop -- is important both for production of new varieties and for preserving corn's genetic heritage, says Mary Eubanks. Friday, April 2, 2004 | MONTREAL -- The scientific puzzle pieces are fitting together to form a definitive picture of the origin of corn, says a Duke University plant geneticist who has proposed that the world's most important food crop originated in an ancient cross between two grasses. Mary Eubanks described the latest evidence that corn, or maize, originated as a cross between teosinte and gamagrass, or Tripsacum, in a talk Friday, April 2, 2004, at a symposium on maize held at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology (www.saa.org) in Montreal. Her research is supported by the National Science Foundation and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. Eubanks, an adjunct professor of biology, has developed evidence that modern corn, scientific name Zea mays, did not evolve solely from a Central American grass known as teosinte -- traditionally the most widely held theory. Rather, her experiments clearly demonstrate that corn arose from a serendipitously viable cross between teosinte and gamagrass. Eubanks emphasized in an interview that her research has confirmed that teosinte was indeed one of corn's ancestors, and that gamagrass was a critical genetic contributor. She contrasts her evidence with the former, highly controversial theory of the late biologist Paul Mangelsdorf, who espoused that teosinte was an offshoot of a cross between corn and Tripsacum rather than an ancestor of corn. "My hypothesis confirms that teosinte is an ancestor of maize, and that key genes were also contributed by gamagrass," she said. In her talk, Eubanks displayed examples of her crosses between species of teosinte and gamagrass that exhibit the evolution from the tiny spikes of teosinte seeds to the early versions of corn ears. New evidence from other researchers that maize evolved very rapidly, perhaps over only a century, supports such a theory, said Eubanks. Rather than the long, slow progressive evolution from teosinte into maize, a fertile cross between teosinte and gamagrass could have relatively quickly yielded early versions of maize. In her talk, Eubanks displayed archaeological specimens of corn alongside matching segregates from experimental crosses between teosinte and gamagrass. Eubanks also discussed her comparative DNA fingerprinting studies of teosinte and Tripsacum taxa, along with primitive popcorns from Mexico and South America. Those analyses of over a hundred genes in the taxa revealed that some 20 percent of the versions, called alleles, of specific genes found in maize are found only in Tripsacum. And, about 36 percent of the alleles in maize were shared uniquely with teosinte. "These findings are by no means conclusive," said Eubanks. "We need to do a lot more sampling of the genetic diversity in different teosinte and Tripsacum species to further test this finding. But certainly, the preliminary evidence from this study supports the hypothesis that Tripsacum introgression could have been the energizing factor for the mutations that humans then selected to derive domesticated maize." In such selections, theorized Eubanks, early humans would have selected -- from the wide range of plants that would result from such crosses -- those that had the most numerous and accessible seeds. Eventually, such selection would have resulted in the cob-like structure of today's corn, she said. Understanding the genetic origins of corn -- now the world's single largest food crop-- is important both for production of new varieties and for preserving corn's genetic heritage, said Eubanks. "Because the crosses between teosinte and gamagrass bridge the sterility barrier between maize and Tripsacum, I'm now moving genes from gamagrass into corn," she said. "And we have developed drought-resistant and insect-resistant corn using conventional plant breeding methods." For example, according to Eubanks, who is working with a commercial seed producer, test crops of some new hybrids have shown strong resistance to the billion-dollar bugs corn rootworm and European corn borer, along with corn earworm, another problematic corn pest. "Understanding the genetic origins of corn and how people historically used corn could offer valuable insights for application to sustainable agriculture today," she said. "And finally, the gene pool underlying corn is part of our heritage that must be preserved if we are to retain the ability to solve agricultural problems such as new pests or the need for new farming methods." Also, she noted, the scientific emphasis on corn is particularly timely because of recent findings that genetically altered corn is contaminating the native land races of maize and its wild relative teosinte currently in Mexico. This alteration of the natural gene pools of these genetic resources could have the effect of reducing the diversity of corn varieties, and compromise the ability to use those varieties as the basis for new crop strains. According to Eubanks, the new drought and pest-resistant hybrids she and her colleagues have developed will undergo field tests this summer in the Midwest, followed by yield trials in winter nurseries, more field tests in the Midwest in 2005, and marketing seed in 2006. For more information, contact: Dennis Meredith | phone: (919) 681-8054, (919) 417-6581 (cell) | email: dennis.meredith@duke.edu. Weather Information Table Week Ending Sunday April 11, 2004 --------------------------------------------------------------- | Past Week Weather Summary Data |--------------------------------- Station | Air | | Avg | Temperature | Precip. |4 in. |---------------|------------|Soil |Hi |Lo |Avg|DFN|Total |Days |Temp ------------------------------------------------------------- Northwest (1) | Chalmers_5W |70 26 47 -3 0.00 0 49 Valparaiso_AP_I |69 27 45 -3 0.00 0 Wanatah |70 23 44 -3 0.00 0 49 Wheatfield |70 23 45 -1 0.00 0 Winamac |68 23 45 -3 0.00 0 North Central(2)| Plymouth |66 24 44 -5 0.05 1 South_Bend |67 22 43 -4 0.00 0 Young_America |67 26 47 -1 0.00 0 Northeast (3) | Columbia_City |64 21 44 -2 0.00 0 Fort_Wayne |64 23 45 -2 0.00 0 West Central (4)| Greencastle |75 23 46 -5 0.00 0 Perrysville |77 25 50 +1 0.00 0 52 Spencer_Ag |75 27 48 -2 0.27 1 Terre_Haute_AFB |71 24 47 -5 0.02 1 W_Lafayette_6NW |71 25 48 +1 0.00 0 54 Central (5) | Eagle_Creek_AP |73 30 50 +0 0.02 1 Greenfield |73 28 49 +0 0.05 2 Indianapolis_AP |74 28 51 +1 0.10 1 Indianapolis_SE |73 26 49 -1 0.07 1 Tipton_Ag |71 27 47 -1 0.00 0 East Central (6)| Farmland |69 25 47 +1 0.05 1 New_Castle |70 23 46 -2 0.03 1 Southwest (7) | Evansville |76 31 54 -1 0.04 1 Freelandville |75 31 52 +0 0.06 2 Shoals |76 28 51 +0 0.03 1 Stendal |78 32 53 +1 0.05 1 Vincennes_5NE |78 31 52 +2 0.05 1 50 South Central(8)| Leavenworth |78 30 52 +0 0.14 1 Oolitic |75 28 50 +0 0.12 2 51 Tell_City |77 36 55 +3 0.05 1 Southeast (9) | Brookville |77 27 50 +2 0.09 1 Milan_5NE |73 27 49 +1 0.06 1 Scottsburg |75 25 50 -3 0.11 2 --------------------------------------------------- Weather Information Table Week ending Sunday April 11, 2004 ----------------|-------------------------------- | Accumulation |-------------------------------- | April 1, 2004 thru Station | April 11, 2004 |-------------------------------- | Precipitation |GDD Base 50oF |-------------------------------- | | | | | |Total | DFN |Days|Total| DFN ------------------------------------------------- Northwest (1) | Chalmers_5W | 0.00 -1.27 0 8 -18 Valparaiso_AP_I | 0.00 -1.41 0 8 -7 Wanatah | 0.00 -1.37 0 7 -4 Wheatfield | 0.71 -0.66 2 9 -2 Winamac | 0.00 -1.31 0 8 -8 North Central(2)| Plymouth | 0.05 -1.34 1 7 -11 South_Bend | 0.01 -1.42 1 7 -5 Young_America | 0.00 -1.21 0 9 -6 Northeast (3) | Columbia_City | 0.01 -1.31 1 3 -7 Fort_Wayne | 0.01 -1.20 1 2 -11 West Central (4)| Greencastle | 0.03 -1.29 1 9 -20 Perrysville | 0.00 -1.41 0 18 -5 Spencer_Ag | 0.44 -0.99 2 13 -12 Terre_Haute_AFB | 0.10 -1.26 2 13 -18 W_Lafayette_6NW | 0.00 -1.29 0 14 -2 Central (5) | Eagle_Creek_AP | 0.11 -1.23 2 21 -6 Greenfield | 0.13 -1.30 4 14 -5 Indianapolis_AP | 0.20 -1.14 2 25 -2 Indianapolis_SE | 0.15 -1.17 2 16 -8 Tipton_Ag | 0.02 -1.39 1 7 -4 East Central (6)| Farmland | 0.17 -1.13 3 7 -4 New_Castle | 0.07 -1.36 2 4 -7 Southwest (7) | Evansville | 0.07 -1.40 2 39 -17 Freelandville | 0.14 -1.22 3 27 -10 Shoals | 0.18 -1.30 2 27 -9 Stendal | 0.18 -1.45 2 35 -10 Vincennes_5NE | 0.10 -1.26 2 29 -8 South Central(8)| Leavenworth | 0.25 -1.47 2 28 -10 Oolitic | 0.34 -1.11 3 21 -8 Tell_City | 0.13 -1.63 2 48 -1 Southeast (9) | Brookville | 0.28 -1.09 4 21 +2 Milan_5NE | 0.28 -1.09 4 17 -2 Scottsburg | 0.34 -1.20 3 23 -14 ------------------------------------------------------------- DFN = Departure From Normal (Using 1961-90 Normals Period). GDD = Growing Degree Days. Precipitation (Rainfall or melted snow/ice) in inches. Precipitation Days = Days with precip of .01 inch or more. Air Temperatures in Degrees Fahrenheit. Copyright 2004: AWIS, Inc. All rights reserved. The above weather information is provided by AWIS, Inc. For detailed ag weather forecasts and data visit the AWIS home page at www.awis.com or call toll free at 1-888-798-9955. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The INDIANA CROP WEATHER REPORT (USPS 675-770), (ISSN 0442-817X) is issued weekly April through November by the Indiana Agricultural Statistics Service, 1435 Win Hentschel Blvd, Suite B105, West Lafayette IN 47906-4145. Second Class postage paid at Lafayette IN. For information on subscribing, send request to above address. POSTMASTER: Send address change to the Indiana Agricultural Statistics Service, 1435 Win Hentschel Blvd, Suite B105, West Lafayette IN 47906-4145. Source: Indiana Agricultural Statistics Service